Takehiro Izushi has retired from Nintendo after 43 years

Chances are you've played a game he was involved with

Legendary Nintendo producer Takehiro Izushi has announced his retirement from the video games behemoth after 43 years. Izushi-san, 65, joined the Mario maker in 1975 as an engineer before progressing into game development, where he spearheaded a number of Nintendo's biggest properties.

His first project was Beam Gun Custom before programming a variety of Color TV Game projects throughout the late 70s, after which he soon jumped ship to Donkey Kong for Game & Watch, as well as cutting his teeth on both Game & Watch Gallery titles.

Eventually, Izushi was promoted to General Manager of Nintendo R&D1 following the departure of Gunpei Yokoi in 1997, and notched up credits on Kirby's Dreamland, Wario Land II, Pokemon Red & Blue, Wario Land III, and Star Wars Episode 1: Racer.

Izushi took a back seat in game development towards the end of his career with the Big N, assuming a role at the company's General Affairs Division in 2014. One of his last major credited roles was on Super Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS as a Supervisor.

Thanks for the memories, Mr. Izushi!

This guy, Izushi, who just retired from Nintendo at age 65, worked on pretty much every game and watch, he’s also the first Japanese person I ever met back in 1990, best guy in the world! pic.twitter.com/7O3G2SHYts